CVE-2026-115774: Twisted: Denial of Service in the Twisted IMAP4 Server via a Negative Literal Size in SEARCH
An infinite-loop vulnerability (CWE-835) in the Twisted IMAP4 server lets an authenticated client freeze the whole process with one small command. twisted.mail.imap4.parseNestedParens reads an IMAP literal size with int() and never rejects a negative value. A negative size such as {-100} drives the parser cursor negative, and because a negative Python index wraps around the end of the string instead of raising, the scanning loop never terminates. It runs synchronously on the single-threaded reactor, so one SEARCH command holds the reactor at full CPU forever and every other connection stops being served.
References
- github.com/advisories/GHSA-2qrf-pqgx-qh9v
- github.com/twisted/twisted/commit/3d125548bcbe955007cb97f480bb699a5e074741
- github.com/twisted/twisted/pull/12764
- github.com/twisted/twisted/releases/tag/twisted-26.10.0rc1
- github.com/twisted/twisted/security/advisories/GHSA-2qrf-pqgx-qh9v
- nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-115774
Code Behaviors & Features
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